thinning tamiya bottle paints for airbrushing

[Rob]

Maybe if you just buy ready-made. Already built stuff. Completely painted for you. There you go. Set it up on a shelf and tell everyone you did it.

 

[Rob]

Seriously though. I thin Tamia paints X and XF and their lacquer line with Mr color 400. I have a patriot 105 airbrush with the black needle and I use one-to-one ratio. If I brush paint I thin it the exact same way with color 400 but I dip my brush or add a drop or two of acrylic retarder. Others May differ but I found out with the brushes I have which I think are decent, I get good results.

 

[Rob]

And what's funny is I heard people say use 90% IPA. So I bought a bottle the other day and tried it. Tamia paints 121 ratio mixed it up with the end of my brush and it mixed up and I said okay that looks pretty good and then I watched it separate and alcohol float to the top. Nah. The heck with that. Mr color 400, it's like Frank's Red hot, I use that poop on everything

 

[Edbert]

it's like Frank's Red hot, I use that poop on everything

I do that with Tony Chachere's.

 

[Jakko]

I watched it separate and alcohol float to the top.

Odd. Are you sure you had X- or XF-series paint there, and not LP-series by any chance?

 

[Littlemarten]

I watched it separate and alcohol float to the top.

Say what? Unless Tamiya changed it's formulation fairly drastically, that makes no sense. I've used Tamiya X and XF for years, the only solvent I've used with it is 90% isopropyl, and a little bit of retarder.

 

[urumomo]

If it's the LP that makes sense .
Nitrocellulose has minimal solubility in alcohol without the presence of an ether . Usually glycol ether for paints .
It depends on nitrogen content ; lower nitrogen mass has higher solubility in alcohol but it also has lower solubility in propanol vs ethanol or methanol .
Excellent solubility in ketones like good ole acetone ,, or butanone ( MEK )

 

[Rob]

Wow. I don't know what the heck happened but I'm going to have to take back what I said. Because just for the hell of it I says okay I'll mix up some XF and some LP with 90% and neither of them separated. I'm slightly confused cuz I did watch it separate now I'm going to have to figure out what I did that made it do that but I do have to take back what I said. According to what I'm seeing right now in the picture that works on both

 

[Edbert]

I've seen Tamiya XF and thinners settle out, but it takes several days, maybe weeks do do so.

It never alarmed me before, I saw the same thing with my beloved "Model Maters" enamels too.